Can "Digital" damage my gear?

"I have had some BIG pops on an LP, that I would worry more about then anything digital ?"

Can they damage amplifier?

Can LP clicks & pops damage a system?

Very unlikely, but theoretically possible if the volume control were high. Over the years there has been a few times that a damaged record has sent me diving to turn the volume control down.

Once a record is in your collection and you know how it has been treated this would be an exceptionally rare event. But the first time you play a record, especially a used one, it wouldn't hurt to exercise a bit of caution.

Mlsstl - I asked because I checked data sheet for Icepower 200ASC used in my Rowland 102 and it shows that full power blast of 20kHz will damage amp (Zobel network) in 20ms and 20W oscillation will do the same in about 1s. This would imply I wouldn't even have time to react (and is inaudible).

I wouldn't worry about damage to your amp from LP clicks and pops. Over the past 10 years I've converted my LP collection to digital using Adobe Audition. It allows you to zoom in on clicks and pops and most are not more than a thousandth of a second long, even when they are loud.

Your bigger worry would be HF oscillation in the circuit due to other factors, such as the faulty preamp I noted above, but you'd need a worse case than the one I had.

Back to your original issue, there are lots of things that can cause damage to your equipment. The particular concern you had is frankly one of the more remote scenarios. If you suffer equipment damage, you're far more likely to get from one of the old fashioned and time tested methods. ;-)

Mlsstl - I'm probably paranoid but digital offers new way of destroying speakers and even amp in addition to good old ones. It just seems strange to me that one can have amp and speakers destroyed by just playing defective song.

Class D amps have output filter (Zobel network) designed to withstand full power at 20kHz for only 20ms. Normal music carry very little energy at high frequencies but modified digital file can. I suspect it might be only problem of class D amps since inductor, often in series with the output, in traditional class A or AB is more robust.

Avoiding internet downloads from questionable sides is definitely advisable. It is a little bit like virus except virus doesn't destroy expensive hardware (and virus can detected).